Here’s the thing: country living in an old farmhouse = mice in the house.

We’ve seen several mice hiding in the basement woodpile this winter so my husband set traps. (Country living tip: rodent traps are more effective set perpendicular to the walls along which the mice run.)

My three-year-old grandson has a toy snake that he threw down the basement several times without explaining why (and people brought up each time they fed the furnace). Crying, he explained, “I keep throwing my snake down and somebody keeps bringing it up. It needs to be down to catch the mice.” We couldn’t argue with the logic, so left the snake on the basement floor.

After my husband checked his trap-line this morning, here’s what Steven found.

He could not believe his eyes (after all, he knows it’s a toy snake), but once he took things in, he was delighted! Ah, the joys of grandparenthood (in the country).

I was out doing some volunteer work yesterday morning and came across what I at first thought was a large dog on the front lawn of a house.

When I realized that it was a cow, I thought for sure it was a lawn ornament – until said bovine raised her head to look at me.

Another “we never saw this in the city” moment!

On the way to the nearest town 45 minutes away, the highway runs by a field in which there is often a white horse. And if the horse is there, so is the goat, following the horse around like a shadow. This summer, there is a new addition – the goat’s kid, who is not visible in the photo.

I think people must stop often for photos and the horse is fed up. Nearly every time I took a shot, he moved his rear-end to the camera. Not amused by the paparazzi , I guess.

I first posted about the great Community Supported Agriculture project in Tatamagouche in June, when we received our first box of vegetables. Since then, there doesn’t seem to have been a lot of change in what we get each week, although the last few weeks we’ve seen such diverse food as broccoli, kohlrabi, fennel, and kale.

The problem is the wet weather we’re experiencing here in Nova Scotia this year. It seems like the rain started in early May and hasn’t stopped since. For instance, last week we received 4 inches (100 mm) of precipitation. Then, after a couple of sunny days on the weekend, it started raining at seven o’clock Monday morning and continued steadily all day, giving us another 2 inches this week. And there’s still no sun in sight.

Most of the rest of Canada is having an extremely dry summer and although rain threatens, there hasn’t been enough. When we were in southern Ontario in late July, we saw lawns and gardens, ditches and roadsides burned brown by the sun. Although I’d rather be here with too much rain (at least it’s not enough so far to cause serious flooding), it’s getting to be too much of a good thing – and it’s having a drastic effect on the vegetable crops.

Cammie, who runs the local CSA, advised us in late July that she had lost about 70% of her early crops in the wet and muddy spring (peas, beans, cabbage, broccoli, spring turnips, beets, salad mix, pac choi, Chinese cabbage, & radishes). But the summer really hasn’t been much better weather wise. This is the first week we’ve received beans in our harvest and there have been no peas at all.

But that’s the risk of a CSA program: farmers and members share in the risk of a bad year, as well as the bounty of a good one.

This week we received carrots, ruby-stemmed chard, a lettuce head, cilantro, broccoli, green & yellow beans, and fresh garlic.

Even though the weather and the resulting harvest have been a little disappointing thus far this year, I’m still keen on the CSA program and will join again next year (providing we have the cash in March). And I’m looking forward to many more weeks of superbly fresh and interesting vegetables this harvest season.

There’s thunderstorms somewhere around here this evening – we hear them in the distance and every so often see a faint flash of lightning. The dogs are not happy, as unused to the sound of thunder as they are.

Meanwhile, sunset came and went behind the clouds, lighting up the western sky with these gorgeous colors.

I never tire of sunsets; in the city, we seldom saw them as the buildings blocked our view.

The less-than-rich soil and shorter growing season along Nova Scotia’s North Shore means that most of the farmland around is used in woodlot, wild blueberries, hayfields, beef & dairy herds, and sheep – lots and lots of sheep. While many of the area farmers still use dogs to herd and protect their flocks–border collies and Bernese mountain dogs being a couple of the favorites–more and more are turning to the use of llamas.

Llamas are relatively friendly, curious and a great asset in keeping the local sheep from the local coyotes. You can read about their guard qualities here.

Yesterday afternoon, we passed a large flock of baa-ing ewes and lambs (what a marvelous sound!) and caught their protector in the middle of a grassy mouthful.

I thought you’d enjoy seeing this, too.

When we came to Nova Scotia, I didn’t realize we were moving near the Cobequid Hills – one of the three mountain ranges here. All of these ranges are part of the Canadian Appalachians, which are an extension of the American mountain chain of the same name.

The Cobequid Hills run along Nova Scotia’s north shore from the Minas Basin to Antigonish, and contain the highest point on the mainland – 1200-foot Nuttby Mountain. (The “mainland” is Nova Scotia without Cape Breton Island.)

My doctor has prescribed walking for my arthritic back and so I try each day to take my dogs for a walk. One of my favorite spots is in the 70-acre hayfield behind our property. This morning was overcast and cool, and the view of the Hills at the back of the field was beautiful.

I’m up to only 15 minutes of walking time, but if you’ve ever tried moving rubber boots through thigh-high grass, you’ll know it’s still a pretty good workout.

It’s lobster season again here on Nova Scotia’s North Shore and we’ve been feasting every weekend on those tasty crustaceans. I often wonder just how desperately hungry the first people to crack open these ugly creatures must have been.

Lots of tourists drive home from Nova Scotia with an old-fashioned wooden lobster pot, purchased directly from the fishermen, on roof of their car. But fishermen are using new square metal traps more & more and in a few years those nostalgia-inducing types may not be available except as reproductions.

But there’s always ways to take home parts of the sea trade. The rope that ties the traps together is sometimes fashioned into door mats – think how durable those are! (And until the end of June, The New England Trading Company is listing some of those mats at up to 20% off)

On our first visit east 20 years ago, we paid a dollar for a souvenir mimeographed booklet that explained how to eat lobster. Of course, back home in the middle of the country we never had a chance to test out the method. But here, at least for May and June every year, we perfect our lobster cracking!

We moved to Nova Scotia eight years ago this week, at the beginning of a month of perfect summer days. I thought we had landed in paradise. But as the year(s) passed and the reality of country living became clearer, there were many times I realized that paradise has indeed been lost.

But this morning dawned a beautiful day 20C/68F, sunny and with a soft breeze from the southwest. After my shower, I went out on the side deck in my robe to hang my towel on the line – and paused to count the wonders of the day in the country:
• I was outside in my robe – and no one was around to see me
• I was hanging my towel on the clothesline
• The air smelled fresh and I knew my towel would come in with the same scent
• The only sounds were the birds singing for their mates

In the city, I would never have ventured outside without being fully dressed – there were too many people around. We didn’t have room for a clothesline and the clothes would have come in covered in fine black soot anyway. (Many urban areas have bans against clotheslines.) And in the city, the traffic and sirens were constant, and the neighbors’ music often reached us when we didn’t want to hear it.

Small blessings, perhaps, but they feed the soul and remind me again why we want to live in the country.

In the springtime, the back portion of our 2.5 acres, usually swampy, becomes a small creek. I sighted this pair of mallard ducks out there today.

Since there’s a male and female, I’m hoping there’s a nest.

One of the perks of country living.

It’s springtime in the country, and lambing season is here. I took these photos yesterday afternoon on a brief driving tour of the area.

The babies are growing quickly but are still gangly.

Watching the domestic animals like these is just one of the small joys of country living!

URGENT:

Controversial Drilling Method Threatens Nova Scotia

So reads the front cover of a leaflet being distributed in our community by concerned citizens. Concerned about what?

Fracking – or hydraulic fracturing, a method of extracting natural gas from deep underground. Energy companies drill deep wells, then pump in water mixed with sand and chemicals at high pressure. The water shatters the rock bed below ground and the sand keeps the cracks open, thus allowing natural gas to escape and be captured.

Fracking has been in use by the energy sector in the U.S.A. since 1947, and an estimated 90% of the natural gas wells there use hydraulic fracturing. So why the uproar?

Opponents of the process assert that very little research has been done on the long-term impact of fracking on human and wildlife health and on the environment. What are the problems?

1) The chemicals used in the fracking process (many of them carcinogens) and the natural gas itself can contaminate ground water – and in communities where most people rely on their own well for drinking water, that’s a tremendous concern.

The producers of the film Gasland show many examples of ruined wells, including one where the water actually burns when lit. America’s Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA) maintains that these wells were contaminated by other sources, and prior to fracking activities in the area.

2) Fracking requires millions of gallon of water – local water – and thus could lower our ground water levels. Some home water wells may run dry and need to be re-drilled.

3) Much of the water used in the process returns to the surface, now contaminated with such hazardous chemicals as kerosene, benzene, toluene, and formaldehyde, and must be disposed of. The rest of the water and chemicals remains underground.

4) As in all mining operations, large areas of land (4 to 6 acres for each well pad) would be levelled, and roads for heavy equipment built. In a rural environment that depends on its natural beauty to draw visitors, as Nova Scotia does, tourism could decline dramatically.

5) Occasionally, a well will explode, spewing millions of gallons of hydraulic fracturing fluid and combustible gas into the air and onto surrounding landscape.

According to the New York Times, the NYC Department of Environment Protection refused to allow fracking within the NYC watershed, citing “an unacceptable threat to the unfiltered water supply of nine million people”.

And therein lies the rub: in the country, we’re not nine million people. We are only a few, and in the eyes of big business and government (and of people who do not live here), a few whose quality of life can be sacrificed.

This is one of the hazards of country living: unless you own ALL the land, potentially dangerous commercial enterprises can become your close neighbours. Sure, in the city, land might be cleared for a new mall or big box store but, as unattractive as they are, they don’t pose the hazard of a natural gas well, fracking the earth beneath you.

In Nova Scotia, there will be a demonstration held in front of Province House in Halifax between 1 and 2 p.m. today, to mark Earth Day and to officially register the groundswell of protest against fracking in Nova Scotia.

I was out doing some volunteer work yesterday afternoon and came across this curious bovine in the barn at the edge of a dooryard. Not something I saw very often in the city…

Can’t get enough cows? Check out CowParade – Moo-ti-cultrural! Shop Today!

Is spring really here? There’s only a few low clouds in a beautiful blue sky and although the temperature is only just above freezing, the sun is warming the earth.

To the right, you can see the tamarack trees at the end of our drive. They are the only coniferous tree in Canada to lose their needles in the winter. I love them for it, although I’m glad that other species stay evergreen so we have some color during the winter months. No buds yet – but soon, soon!

Can you see them? I finally figured out how to enlarge the detail and now I can show you the animals in the field across the road.

We see deer there nearly every day. Every delivery person who comes comments on seeing them there. And I often see cars stopping just in front of our place and backing up a bit to get a better look.

They are such gorgeous creatures and I never tire of seeing them or admiring their beauty.

P.S. Do you mind that I cheated a bit and took this picture this morning?

An e-mail invitation has me thinking about getting a group together this weekend and going sleigh riding. There’s more than one place within 20 minutes of our house where we could do this, but one of my favorites is the Sugar Moon Farm.

Husband and wife team, Scott Whitelaw and Quita Grey have a thriving maple syrup business in the Cobequid Mountains in Earltown NS. They use these gorgeous draught horses in the sugaring work and in winter, before the sap starts to run, for sleigh rides through the woods. There are also hiking trails for snowshoeing and crosscountry skiing.

We often take friends to the “sugar shack” for breakfast, and sometimes go, just us, if we have a weekend morning available.

In the city, one can just keep warm in winter, at a movie theater or a bowling alley or a mall. Those venues are at least an hour’s drive from here.

Want to sleigh ride, snowshoe, or hike in the beautiful outdoors? No problem. This is the sort of winter activity that is often easily available in the country.

What about you? What kind of winter activity do you enjoy: city or country?

Disclaimer: I am NOT an affiliate of Sugar Moon Farms nor am I in any way compensated by them. I received an e-mail about the sleigh rides from them today and decided to share because I simply love the place!

[tags]Sugar Moon Farm, draught horses, draft horses, maple sugaring, sugar shack, maple syrup, sleigh rides, all-you-can-eat pancakes, Chef’s night, hiking trail, Nuttby Mountain, Earltown NS, Rogart Mountain Trail [/tags]

Busy couple of days and so I didn’t get this posted on Friday. But I didn’t want to miss showing you the colors.

The rain on Friday was soft, almost a mist, and what little wind there was was not from the north. The day was almost warm.

The wet had saturated the grasses in the field and on the lawn, bringing out the jewel tones in this bit of creation.

.

It’s been a bonus week of lovely (almost) mild & sunny weather and the weather office promises a couple of more days like this. We’re enjoying while we can.

The lovely golden leaves on the alder are all gone, so I’m focusing this week on the field across the road.

The white dot on the far side of the field is one of my cats hunting mice. Hunters shot a deer in the woods there last week – way, way not far enough away from the road and houses.

.

The headlines here are exclaiming over the coyote attack earlier this week, when a young woman visitor from Toronto was killed by two rogue males while she was on a hiking trail in Cape Breton. Read the rest of this entry »

.